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Heart of Glass (1976)

Summary: Set in 18th century Bavaria, a little town is famous for producing an exquisite red ‘ruby glass’ from a glassblowing factory. The secret on how to make this brilliant ruby glass is feared lost when the master blower dies. Distraught, the Baron of the town and factory owner, who are obsessed the ruby glass contains magical powers, begin to descend into madness dragging the other townspeople with them.

My review: This film caught my attention when reading an interview with a member from Blondie (not Debbie Harry) who explained; when writing their hit song ‘Heart of Glass’ they had no idea there was a film with the same name. But not only that, the further reason this was apparently a ‘must-watch’ is because all of the actors, who weren’t really actors in their profession, had been hypnotized, apart from a very select few, to act out their characters. The director wanted to really capture a town of people imprisoned in a coma-like insanity and yeah, perhaps a great idea on paper, yet in practice the characters actually wobble around like gaumless goldfish and lose all grip and understanding of the dialogue, pausing for too long then talking over each other. The 90-minutes are long and painful, but I’ll give it one point in the sense you’ve got to watch it to believe it.